I haven’t always been extroverted. I actually was very shy as a little girl, and it wasn’t until I moved to Greenville, NC that I felt like I really came out of my shell. That may make it sound like I was hiding before the move, which I wasn’t, but I think the push of independence and being totally alone in a brand new state was what I needed to really figure myself out.
While I’ll occasionally chat with old friends from high school, I really don’t have much contact with anyone from that time of my life. Moving across the country is one of the reasons why, and I’m also a pretty different person from who I was in high school.
So since about age 19, I was in charge of finding new friends on my own.
A lot of my friends as an adult have been found through my church. Between our small group or other mutual connections, that has consistently been where I’ve found some incredibly special and deep friendships. Beyond that, I’ve met wonderful people through the gym I used to go to, through my kids’ preschool and elementary school, and even where I live! We moved away from a great group of people that we would spend time with while playing outside with our kids multiple times a week. The closeness of just being able to step outside made it easy to build relationships with our neighbors.
As a mom, the easiest no-brainer way to get to know another mom is to set up a park playdate with our kids. It gives the kids something do to so ...